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Newark’s Riverfront Park a smart idea

Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, is getting national attention for converting an old industrial site along the Passaic River into a public park. It’s a smart move that gives thousands of residents a great place to walk, relax, play and meet their neighbors.

Newark, New Jersey’s largest city, is getting national attention for converting an old industrial site along the Passaic River into a public park. It’s a smart move that gives thousands of residents a great place to walk, relax, play and meet their neighbors.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave Newark a “National Award for Smart Growth Achievement” for turning 16 acres of previously contaminated land into Riverfront Park, providing recreational space in a neighborhood where it had been sorely lacking.

Riverfront Park gives Newark residents access to the river for the first time in decades and is spurring economic development in the adjacent downtown. Plans call for continued park expansion along the waterfront over the next several years.

Riverfront Park joined two other projects — a neighborhood redevelopment in tornado-damaged Jackson, Tenn., and a trio of retail-residential developments in downtown Hamilton, Ohio — as national models for protecting the environment and public health while supporting local goals like boosting the economy.

“The smart growth strategies behind this year’s award winners are making a visible difference in their communities, and they provide models that can guide and inspire many others,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

Riverfront Park furthers a decades-long vision for reclaiming the waterfront, which had been inaccessible for generations.

Located on the site of a former metal smelting plant, the new park hosts concerts, festivals, yoga and zumba classes, boat tours, cultural events and more. As the EPA notes, it’s becoming “an integral part of the community’s identity and activity.”

So what exactly is smart growth?

The term refers to a range of development and conservation strategies to protect public health and natural environments … while making communities more attractive, economically strong and socially diverse.

Among the guiding principles of smart growth are directing development towards existing communities; preserving open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental areas; creating walkable neighborhoods; fostering distinctive communities with a strong sense of place; creating a range of housing opportunities and choices; providing a variety of transportation choices; and encouraging community collaboration in development decisions.

Parks provide many benefits, including recreational space where people can exercise to lead healthier lives. Projects like Riverfront Park also provide environmental benefits by removing contamination and absorbing floodwaters from the tidal Passaic.

Riverfront Park is located in Ironbound, an ethnically diverse neighborhood immediately east of downtown. For years, it had one of the nation’s lowest ratios of public parks to population, with less than a half-acre of parkland per 1,000 residents.

The new park has great amenities, including playgrounds, baseball and soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts and open grassy areas. And it’s just the start of a multi-year project to transform five miles of riverfront into a green ribbon of parks and pedestrian paths.

The EPA award isn’t the first time this park has been lauded as smart planning. Last year, New Jersey Future gave the project one of its Smart Growth Awards.

Kudos to Newark and its partners — including the Essex County parks department, the Trust for Public Land and the Ironbound Community Corporation — for a job smartly done.

To find out more about activities at Riverfront Park, go to www.newarkriverfront.org.

And to learn more about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.

Michele S. Byers is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.